Free Step Dodge

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight marks the start of Season Five over at WNF! If you are in the Los Angeles area, make a point to head over to Super Arcade in Walnut, CA to get in on the action. Presented by Level Up, WNF is one of the biggest regular gatherings of the FGC in the country and Dead or Alive 5 is in as a side tournament. It is absolutely imperative that we get as many DoA-playing bodies in that place as possible to not only improve our game through competitive play but also to generate interest with the rest of the Fighting Game Community. We're all a part of the same family and it's time for us to stop sitting at the kid's table!

The festivities kick off at 8PM PDT, so you have about an hour to get your asses in gear and show up. Hit the event thread below for address and directions. Those of you that aren't in the area and want to watch, the stream is embedded in that very same thread...

Another week has passed, meaning we're closer to the end of the year. This holiday season is looking mighty big for those in the offline Dead or Alive 5 competitive community. Overall, there looks to be around two majors going down that every Dead or Alive competitor should try to make it out to. As many players find though, these events aren't so much for the tournaments as they are for the casual matches before and after the tournament so there's always fun to be had by all player types.


Joining up with Absolute Battle, Emmanuel "MASTER" Rodriguez has brought the eighth DID back with a vengeance. There will be at least a singles Dead or Alive 5 tournament with $500 worth of cash and prizes guaranteed to the top three placers. This is certainly an...

I was browsing through our event calendar and noticed an event happening in Virtuapai's backyard. Seeing no replies I was wondering if anyone missed the event announcement.

Dead or Alive 5 will be featured as one of the four games in a tournament for the night at Battlefield Arcadia this Thursday, October 11th. I know we have New York players ready to represent their skills and knowledge of the game. Don't let the North East coast down guys.

There will also be an induction of the Dead or Alive 5 top placer to Razer's Beta Test Program to check out their upcoming arcade stick. I've heard plenty of buzz about their work and anyone who prefers using arcade sticks when playing Dead or Alive 5 will certainly have fun being in the program.

So grab a friend and try to show up and support your self, game, and community.

The full event thread and information can be found here...

Dead or Alive 5 has been out for over a week now, giving many players some time to pick up on some strategies in the forums and with each other. This hasn't prevented tournaments from being held, and we're already seeing some known players taking control of the game in the early goings.

Seasons Beatings Ascension (SBA)
Cleveland, OH

This event not only featured many of the top mid-west players including Carl "Perfect Legend" White, Chris "NinjaCW" Harris, and Eric "Ryujin" Lee. Unsurprisingly, each of these players took the top three in the tournament. In addition to these power players, Team NINJA also was on hands for the event. Many of the players were able to share their passion with not only others of the Fighting Game Community, but with Team NINJA as well. Yohei Shimbori (Dead or Alive Game Director), Peter Garza (Overseas Producer), and Tom Lee (Creative Director of Team NINJA) were all there to provide a Q&A session with the fans and watch the tournament go...

Gamasutra recently put up an article interviewing Yohei Shimbori about understanding a series' fans when developing a game. This is probably a big reason as to why "swimsuits" and "pin-up models" made a return to the series after early interviews stated they wanted a more mature look for the franchise.

Yohei Shimbori via Gamasutra said:

One of the things that I learned was the power of having a series behind you, and what it means to be part of a series. There are existing fans out there, and you have to think about the people who have supported the series for so long, and you want to make sure that the game that you make appeals to them first, and satisfies those fans first.

...

"As a director, I really try to take fan feedback into account. I really try to keep an open mind," Shimbori says. That, married with some serious reflection on how the...

Click to expand...

So apparently a Mila infinite has been found. It requires Mila to knock you into a wall down and do ... and it continues until the Mila player messes up or time expires. The damage is worthless but mainly this locks a player into the ground until time expires.

The only way to escape the infinite is to tech roll when landing on the ground, but the netcode makes that difficult online unfortunately.

Needless to say, this should be banned at all tournaments until a patch comes out to hopefully address the issue.

Feel free to tweet @TeamNINJAStudio to get their attention about this glitch and hopefully we'll see a patch sooner rather than later.

Updated video to reflect example of the issue happening in open space.

First place: Rikuto $7,500
Second place: MASTER $2,000
Third place: Black Mamba $500

Grand Finals:

Archive...

We've got some good news for Team NINJA and a swift kick for the rest of you in a holding pattern: the DoA5 Collector's Edition is out of stock at GameStop for Xbox 360! As the sole distributor in the US, there is currently no other way to obtain that version of the game. That being said, the PS3 Collector's Edition is currently still available as of this writing, so get a move on! You should still be able to pre-order today, however there is a good likelihood pre-orders will close today or tomorrow. Hit the link to see the full article at GamePur.

Source: Gamepur

The Verge has shared the Famitsu article showing a discussion between Yu Suzuki and Yosuke Hayashi on Dead or Alive 5. Team Ninja's Dead or Alive 5 (which received straight 9/10 scores in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine) features a number of characters from Sega's Virtua Fighter series. It's a crossover that VF creator Yu Suzuki probably didn't have that much involvement, given that he left Sega a while back and is busy running smartphone/console game producer YS NET. Still, he's always eager to talk fighters, so Famitsu sat him down with Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi this week to discuss the collaboration and the state of fighting games in general. Some of the highlights:

Suzuki seems genuinely impressed by DOA5. "I feel like this is a real evolution, one...

Click to expand...

Yosuke Hayashi was recently interviewed by VG247.com with a few words to say about Fighting Entertainment, balancing the game and its characters, and sharing the game early in development with fans and the media. Its an interesting read out of Hayashi for once. Kudos go out to VG247 for asking questions that seemed to take Hayashi off his normal interview answers.


You'll find some choice quotes below, but be sure to hit the full interview to get Hayashi's take on the Wii U and stepping back into the Metroid series:

VG247.com said:

Balancing is another area that must have needed a lot of work to make Dead or Alive 5 run as smoothly and as fairly as possible. How challenging has it been to strike a solid balance this time around?

In terms of balancing the most...

Click to expand...

Dead or Alive 5 is set to drop in all regions during the final full week of September, with North America leading off the releases September 25. While our friends across the pond will be looking forward to the game's release on September 28th, those tournament-going players in North America will have their choice of two post-release tournaments that begin that same day. Best of all, the Director of Dead or Alive 5 himself, Yohei Shimbori, will be on hand to witness the events of Season's Beatings personally!

Season's Beatings: Ascension will begin September 28th in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information on the event, head over to the tournament thread by clicking here.

Game Underground Tournament Spectacular, with its Dead or Alive 5 tournament run by our very own Gill Hustle, will be taking place...

Prominent community member and hype man Gill Hustle has posted up a thread with a relatively thorough write-up on the entire experience of DoA5 at Summer Jam 6. It's great to see how our community reacts to events and the posts serve to show people who couldn't make it exactly why they should try to make the next one. I've excerpted a few standout passages below. Seriously guys, get involved as soon as you can.

Gill Hustle said:

As we went outside to enjoy a smoke break. We began to wonder what happened to Rikuto and CyberEvil. Lopedo pulled out his cell and as we suspected they were playing DOA5 in a "private room"

So of course we crashed the party!

Inside Mr. Wah was demonstrating Bass against Cyber's Hayabusa in a level that reminded me of the Ninja Hideout from DOA4 due to being in such an small area. Note: Bass is Very Scary.

Afterwards Rikuto took the controls and began bodying us with a lot of new Bayman Tech!

Next king on the...

Click to expand...

Team NINJA and Yohei Shimbori have released two matches of newly announced Helena Douglas against Lisa Hamilton. Helena is the CEO of DOATEC with Lisa being one of the chief scientists for the DOATEC's research and development division. Seems strange that Lisa seems to use the same fighting style as La Mariposa. Perhaps they know each other?

Below I've posted the two matches along with all of the screen shots released by Tecmo-Koei today. Enjoy

Yohei Shimbori said:

Lisa's tricky moves set her apart. She doesn't simply come straight at you, so if you're not used to her actions, you have no idea what to expect. She also has a lot of strikes with long reach, making her good at mid-range offense, but now she has moves that come from runs and runs that comes from other moves, so she is way more active this time around. Of course you can launch attacks straight from the run, but you can also do things like stop in the middle of the run...

Click to expand...

For those who are not yet aware, GVN Summer Jam 6 is going down this coming weekend August 25th and 26th! Team NINJA has decided to help sponsor the event by providing the IGN Pro League Round 2 demo build of the game (v0.95). There was a recent announcement to the change in prize structure of the event.

GVN will be hosting a Singles Tournament of the pre-release build of Dead or Alive 5. There will be casual stations set up throughout the two days of the event for free play even during the tournament event itself for any attendees of the event. The entry fee to the Singles Tournament has been waived, as in, it's now free to enter by any attendees. Registration for the tournament begins at 10:00 AM on Saturday, August 25th and has a tentative registration end time of 3:00 PM. The tournament will begin around the 3:30 PM time period. Additionally, the event will be working with Jaxel from 8WayRun.com on streaming matches of the tournament.

Erik "Rikuto" Argetsinger and myself have...

Marie-Laure Norindr, also known as "Kayane," is a professional Soul Calibur player from France who recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Yohei Shimbori and Yosuke Hayshi from Team Ninja regarding Dead or Alive 5. Kayane managed to ask a fair amount of questions that covered a variety of topics ranging from the story mode, music, inclusion of Virtua Fighter characters, and the mindset of Japanese DOA players.


The entire interview can be found on Kayane's blog: kayane.fr. Below are some notable excerpts:

Day 10 of IGN Pro League's 12 Days of Dead or Alive 5 has arrived. Today they bring a few game play matches from their staff of players who have had some time with the August game build.

The characters in battle are Ayane, Bass, Eliot, Hayate, La Mariposa, Jann Lee, Lei Fang, and Rig. We also get to see the new stage "Home" and the tigers are finally shown off in "The Show". Personally, the tigers don't look anywhere near as annoying as Dead or Alive 4's cheetah because they are triggered by hitting the wall danger zone and the ring master announces their departure. You be the judge. All the matches from set one are on display below, but be sure to check out more info from doa.ign.com. My personal favorites are the Jann Lee & Hayate matches, and any match that has Bass winning. What can I say? I'm a pro wrestling fan. I just wish I could have seen his F5.

IGN's 12 Days of DOA continues with a breakdown of Jann Lee. The article can be found here.

It goes in depth to talk about some nice items like the Dragon Gunner having guaranteed follow-ups and unsafe attacks becoming safe if canceled into the new Dragon Stance.

Jann Lee was one of the best characters in the Japanese and European versions of DOA3 (known as DOA 3.1 and 3.2). In Dead or Alive 4, he was average at best and struggled to keep up with the better characters in the game. Dead or Alive 5 returns Jann Lee to his rightful place near the top of the DOA food chain.

First and foremost, his Dragon Gunner throw is one of the few offensive holds in the game for a non-grappler character. Not only does it guarantee multiple follow-up attacks that cannot be countered, but it’s very difficult to see...

Click to expand...

Due to technical difficulties, IGN was unable to release DrDogg's breakdown of a fan favorite character introduced in Dead or Alive 4: Kokoro. Kokoro is a Ba Ji Quan user modeled after Virtua Fighter's Akira in concept. She is the half-sister of Dead or Alive's DOATEC president, Helena Douglass. Does Kokoro stack up well in the new engine, or is she in for some troubled times? Bryan has provided the full article until IGN Pro League has resolved it's issues:

Bryan Dawson said:

Kokoro was a newcomer in Dead or Alive 4 that had a few nice strings but was never really considered to be on the same level as many of the ninja characters. Now, she enters Dead or Alive 5 with all of her powers at the ready. She is formidable, safer than most characters, and with a little luck, can actually hit a Critical Burst in three successful attacks (from our experience so far only Leifang can Burst in less...

Click to expand...

Day 7 is here. Bryan has put up his breakdown of Bass Armstrong. Suffice it to say, he's better than he was in DOA4 by far. The guy is back to being a scary monster with powerful attacks and devastating throws. I'll summarize the article for all the Bass fans out there:

DrDogg said:

While Bass won’t be playing the stun game very often (most of his attacks are single hit knock down moves), his Critical Burst is one of the best in the game. It’s about the same speed as most other Critical Burst attacks, but it’s safe if blocked. Couple this with the fact that it stuns on normal hit (the opponent can counter out of this stun), and you have a very dangerous attack on your hands.

Against Bass, you have quite a few things to worry about. If you block any of his guard breaks he has advantage in the best case scenario, and is safe in the worst case scenario. If you attack in the middle of...

Click to expand...

Bryan's back with a breakdown of a new character as we count down to the second IGN Pro League "I'm a Fighter" Championship event in San Mateo, CA. Today's character breakdown is none other than the femme fatale assassin Christie. Christie is a character who has had her hand in just about every incident in the Dead or Alive story, including killing Helena's mother and attempted assassination of Bayman. It looks like she also has some sort of history with series newcomer Rig. Be sure to check out the game when it comes out on September 25th, until then, let DrDogg give you a sneak peak of Christie's fighting style:

DrDogg said:

Against a good Christie player, you’re going to have to decide if you block her guard break at the end of a string and allow her to continue her offense (she still has one of the fastest jabs in the game), or attempt to interrupt a potential Jakeiho cancel and risk...

Click to expand...

The fifth day of IGN Pro League's 12 Days of DOA brings us information about the advanced Training mode, and from the sounds of it 'advanced' is an understatement.

DrDogg goes over many of the robust features this training mode brings along. This includes a feature to record your inputs, second player controlling the dummy, holding in stun as soon as possible, and even the speed at which Struggle Escaping is performed. Many cool options are explained and I recommend getting over there and reading the full article.

DrDogg said:

The basic features you’d expect from a training mode are also present. You can reset the character position back to the default starting spot, have all attacks connect as a counter hit or hi counter hit, turn the ability to use a Power Blow on or off, turn danger zones on or off, and even adjust the latency to mimic online lag (from 5 bars all the way down...

Click to expand...